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LTC's 'Tavern' hits home for actor

By Megan QuinnFor the Times-Call

Posted:
01/25/2013 11:52:47 AM MST

Updated:
01/25/2013 12:31:18 PM MST

Peters Cabrera, as Rudy, Ben Neufeld, as Georgie, and Beau Wilcox, as Eddie, appear in the Longmont Theatre Company s production of Over The Tavern, which opens Friday, Jan. 25. (Jonathan Castner/For the Times-Call )

LONGMONT -- Don't be overly critical if Greg Winkler seems to be too into his role as Chet Pazinski in "Over the Tavern," which opens today at the Longmont Theatre Company.

You see, Winkler, a Broomfield-based actor, has a real-life family connection to "Over the Tavern." His family lived in Buffalo, N.Y., at the same time Tom Dudzick was writing the semi-autobiographical play. Winkler's grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather owned F.X. Winkler and Sons, a grocery store that is mentioned in the play.

After Winkler's father died in 1996, he received a letter from Dudzick, who explained how he included the iconic store in his play.

F.X. Winkler and Sons closed in 1968, but Greg Winkler said his family still has boxes of tea bags, bills of sale and other items from the original grocery store. Some of those items show up as props in the LTC version of "Over the Tavern."

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"We just wanted it to be as realistic as possible," Winkler said.

"Over the Tavern" invites the audience into Eisenhower-era New York, where a Catholic family is trying to find themselves while living in a cramped apartment over a bar.

Tracy Cravens, a producer of the show, said plays such as "Over the Tavern" draw actors from all over Colorado -- in this case, "Over the Tavern" is heavy on Broomfield actors. In addition to Wilcox, the cast includes Broomfield-based actors Peters Cabrera, who plays the main character, Rudy, and Beau Wilcox, who plays Rudy's brother, Eddie.

The two young actors, 11 and 14, make the show believable and strong, said Winkler, who plays their father.

"Peters and Beau are just excellent actors and do such a great job," he said.

Wilcox and Cabrera, who have acted in plays for Broomfield's BackStory Youth Theatre, said the script left them laughing before they even took the stage.

"Every line is comedic," Wilcox said. "If you like to laugh a lot, you will really like this show."

And that's why Cravens believes it could do well at the box office.

"It's a comedy," she said, "and when there are kid-centered comedies, people just seem to love that."

Cabrera and Wilcox share a love of acting and are close friends off stage. The two said it felt weird to play brothers who don't get along. The boys trade punches on stage in part of the show.

It was easy to get the dialogue going, but "we're supposed to be mean to each other, and I didn't want to be mean because we're friends," Cabrerea said.

Cabrera plays Rudy, a wise-cracking kid who starts to question his family's Catholic values in 1950s New York as his siblings try to sort out what it means to grow up and their father deals with a secret from his past.

Cabrerea and Wilcox were both raised Catholic but don't think they could handle the strict environment of some Catholic schools in the 1950s. Their characters have a run-in with Sister Clarissa, a nun who doesn't hesitate to use her ruler.

The show explores faith and family but also looks at the effect parents have on their children, even after those children have become adults.

"It's a funny play," Winkler said, "but there's also some drama, too. It has a lot of heart."

After putting acting on hold for 12 years to raise his children, Winkler decided to start doing local plays again just as the Longmont Theatre Company announced it was looking for actors for "Over the Tavern."

"The timing was just perfect," he said.

Megan Quinn can be reached at 303-410-2649 or quinnm@broomfieldenterprise.com

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